


Ghosts in Bergen

by tonight_aliv



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-09
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2018-02-16 17:03:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2277744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tonight_aliv/pseuds/tonight_aliv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A drabble about falling asleep despite some hauntings whispering to you in unfamiliar northern winds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ghosts in Bergen

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted to tumblr on Apr 16th, 2013.

There was a change in the room, a change that wasn’t more than one in atmosphere. It didn’t come with any light intruding upon the mid night, certainly not as far from town as this apartment complex was. A gusts of wind rattled the foundation, but that was normal. Storms wouldn’t have woken Johan. Never had.

He rolled onto his side, away from the slight cold encroaching from the window, and opened his eyes at length. His vision was filled with darkened outlines of a very messy bedroom. His clothes were scattered across the floor in piles, shoes and books and boxes he had never bothered to unpack accompanying them, unchanged since he had last seen them…

The door was open. It was a bit difficult to see at first, but the more his eyes adjusted, the more suspicious the door looked at its slight angle. He couldn’t see anything but a dark shadow spread behind it into the hallway. He blinked, trying to remember if he had accidentally left the door open.

His attention was drawn to the dresser on the same wall, an old thing with peeling white paint and drawers that stuck. Or, rather, he was drawn toward the shadow that lay between the dresser and the slightly opened door.

Johan took a moment to squint at the wall, and when he did, he saw it again. A shift, small and rapid. Shaking. Something against that wall was shivering.

Realization dawned all too quickly as he threw the quilts to the end of the bed, almost leaping across the room when Ruby Carbuncle’s weak outline manifested on top of the dresser. Johan was kneeling in front of the figure in two and a half steps, holding his breath as he reached out to grab the slight shape of a set of shoulders.

His name ghosted from Johan’s lips, the tone trying to coax him into lifting his face from behind his knees, into lowering his arms from their tight hold around his legs, into relaxing the tense muscles shivering from fatigue and cold.

"Judai," Johan tried again, gripping the black shirt and shoulders a little tighter. Ruby Carbuncle mewed in question from above their heads.

“‘S nothing,” came the dull reply after a few terse moments.

A long breath escaped Johan at the sound of Judai’s voice, even if it was painfully devoid of the life it usually held. His grip on Judai’s shoulder’s loosened significantly, now just whispers of a touch on Judai’s upper arms, which were still wrapped tightly around scrawny legs. It was something, and something was better than nothing.

He chanced a small, pitying smile as his right hand moved from Judai’s arm to brush at a few strands of light brown hair, “Can’t sleep again?”

There was no hint of exasperation or contempt in Johan’s voice, and after another few breaths, after more strands of hair brushed gently away from his forehead, Judai’s arms relaxed to his sides and his legs fell to the floor, loosely crossed at the shins.

"I see them every time I try to fall asleep. I see them all dying," a few shaky breaths, likely trying to hold back tears, but Johan couldn’t be sure from this angle, "dying because of me."

Having retrieved his own arms to his sides after Judai had relaxed, Johan felt that there was only one thing to do as he held his right hand out, palm up, for Judai to take, “Come on. It’s late.”

Ruby disappeared when Judai took the proffered hand and was led toward the bed. Johan didn’t let go of his hand while either of them settled in, which was a bit awkward to maneuver in such a small space, but he knew that Judai would appreciate it all the same. The quilts he threw over the two of them still retained a small bit of warmth, but it still took a while for Judai to stop shivering, a fact that had become much more obvious.

Johan managed to put another smile on his face as he watched Judai shift into a more comfortable position, their hands still clasped between them, “Thank you for finding me.”

He watched a single tear worm its way from the corner of Judai’s left eye to the bridge of his nose, trying its very best to fall to the other side of his false grin, “I really need to sleep, Johan. I can’t stay awake any more.”

"Then sleep, Judai," he said, using his thumb to rub circles across Judai’s knuckles. And after a few minutes of even breathing, they both did.


End file.
